Library Smut

Everyone who knows me will tell you I'm a huge fan of gadgets. Computers, software, web based applications, etc. And with that I'll tell you: nothing beats sitting down and reading a book. I'll never be one to use the new e-books, but I will test them out and marvel at their software and portability.

So I was excited to "stumble-upon" (if you haven't tried out this ultra-neat firefox add-on, you're WAY behind the web 2.0 curve) a great photo gallery of libraries filled with books that nearly made me drool. Look:


Pretty amazing, huh? Click here for the full gallery.

I wonder where you check your email in those libraries?

Greetings from Helena - site of the 2007 Montana Library Association conference

I just got out of the author lunch with Neil Gaiman which followed his morning talk on intellectual freedom. I have to say after all the hype I was a little worried about what kind of speaker he would be. You know the thing, famous author, writes well, not such a good speaker. Well, he was great. He told us a great story about being accused of selling out by posting his own short stories on his personal website and was called a "pixel stained techno peasant wretch." So funny, very intelligent, speaking from no notes, did an outstanding job. During the author lunch he spoke about himself as a reader turned writer. He described his attitude in regard to his life's goals at the age of 15 as "arrogance untempered by knowledge." They made a gift to him of the Book Babes calendar which, after a comment about a perfume developed based on a character in one of his books smelling like sexy librarians, was an appropriate choice. For all of those that weren't able to come, if you ever have the opportunity again, take it!!!!!
Among other good news he gave us was the news about his upcoming films. http://www.neilgaiman.com/works/films/ Be sure to stay tuned on those.
I'll be interested to see if his remarks in his blog about meeting and speaking to us will be as interesting as our blogs on him. http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/ ... and ... OMG he just walked past me on his way in to his afternoon talk. They're going to love it. I'm hearing uproarious laughter, he must be in and speaking.
Hope you're having a great day.

Greetings from Helena - site of the 2007 Montana Library Association conference

Things are beginning to wind down here. The exhibitors have packed up and moved their tables of goodies out. They've treated us all very well and were, as always, a welcome addition to the conference. We are looking forward to the membership dinner tonight and the presentations by Neil Gaiman tomorrow. There are still tickets available if you want to jump in your car tomorrow morning for a day in Helena with a public lecture and book signing at 2:30 p.m. at the Red Lion by Mr. Sandman himself. This will most likely be a once in a lifetime opportunity and you can be sure is worth the $20 ticket.
I went to numerous sessions today, all excellent. Tomorrow morning I'll be going to a session on graphic novels (fat comic books) that will be led by the YA librarian from Miles City who came to the Cates Scholarship party last night dressed as Death from Sandman. Silly me, I thought she was just Goth. She is really a scream and I'm looking forward to her talk.
It's all be fun, educational, exhausting, and great. Looking forward to coming home and sleeping in my own bed.

Your Next Hiking Trip Begins Here

I love maps--I'm a certified cartophile. In fact, I'm a bit of a map freak (though oddly enough I don't own a world atlas) and if I had my way my apartment walls would be pretty much covered in maps. And my wife and I also like to hike and drive around (on roads) in the wilds; that's one of the reasons we moved to Missoula in fact.

So imagine my delight when I saw that the Missoula Public Library has all the USGS quads for Montana westward from the 111th meridian and all of Montana's stretch of the Missouri River.
These maps can get expensive to own as the level of detail means they don't cover much area, so a hiking tour of any real length might require several of them at $6 apiece. For those of us who think GPS is a crutch (and it is), this resource can prove invaluable. They're back behind the Reference Desk.

Greetings from Helena - site of the 2007 Montana Library Association conference

Yesterday's MLA board meeting had several high spots, reports on the legislature, highlights from the conference planners, etc. I think that the two most exciting moments were when we entered the room to sit at our places and found there our very own Nancy Pearl (she's a librarian) action figure dolls as gifts from the outgoing MLA president and when we got to preview the Book Babes of Montana calendar featuring librarians from around the state, male and female, that will be going on sale today. One of our group bought 15 of the calendars as Christmas gifts right off the bat. They are amazing, well done, and are truly a unique item. This morning all of the models for the calendar will be available for signing calendars at the official unveiling.
Today I am looking forward to the new member breakfast first thing, not the only reason I'm up so early, and the genealogy workshop later today. Tonight I will attend my first ever Cates Trivia event. Our director says I have to be on the trivia team for our library. I hope my brain cooperates.
Still having fun in Helena! No, really I am!

Come on feel the noise!

The library seems like such a quiet place, but behind the scenes almost all of us listen to music of some sort while we work. We each have our own music to help us make it through the day. Some of us listen at our desks with headphones, but when we're working upstairs at the circulation desk we have a stereo to listen to our music.

Often it will be a radio station, 103.3 The Trail and Z-100 are popular choices, and other times we'll put in a CD. We see hundreds of CDs pass through everyday and that gives us a huge selection to choose from. Our playlist tonight looked like this:

We get quite the variety, and what we listen to almost always depends on who is working together and what you bring back for us. So if you see us nodding our heads behind the desk we're not necessarily crazy, we might just be listening to some good music.

Greetings from Helena - site of the 2007 Montana Library Association conference

Our carload has arrived and we've checked into our rooms. Since we were all starving the first thing we did was find some dinner. Next on the agenda, now that our workday is over, is to hit the hot tub for some, definitely get into some more comfortable clothes for all, and relax for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow morning, bright and early, will be a great presentation on Bringing boys and books together that several of our staff will be attending. I, on the other hand, will be sitting in my room reading reports in preparation for the MLA board meeting that will begin tomorrow just after lunch. There are three members of the staff that are either on the board or on its advisory council. It's all interesting stuff and whether educational, like to workshop, or more administrative, like the board meetings, it all helps us do our jobs better on one level or another.
I've brought along one of the library cameras so hope to have a picture or two for you over the week.

have you been outside lately?

Some days, conversations at the checkout desk center around the weather. Today was no exception. I never have to wonder what it's like outside - y'all make great weather spectators. Not to mention commentators.

Personally, I'm a fan of fall and winter. I grew up in a cool climate, migrated to Alaska and (in a roundabout way) ended up in Montana. Cool/cold climes remind me of home.

It seems that Missoulians LOVE spring, thus making this a happy week for our little town. Warm and smiley.

But what about real Library News? This week is huge for Montana librarians. Our annual conference is just about to begin in Helena. MPL is sending about eight staff members to attend various workshops. If you visit us this week you may notice lesser known staff members filling in at public desks. Check the blog next week for some fun feedback from the Helena trip.

Curious about what goes on at a library conference? Check it out...

http://www.mtlib.org/conf/mla2007/index.htm

See ya next time...

C

Welcome To The Classroom

Ever since we opened Web Alley we've been busy getting a computer training lab open to the public. Well, the wait is over! Starting May 1st we're going to be offering free computer classes on everything computer. First up is a Beginning Word class to get you up to speed on this essential application. From there we'll move on to Basic Internet Use and beyond. We have six stations and a great volunteer instructor, all we need now is you. To sign up for a class give us a call at (406)721-2665 or stop by the information desk next time you're in the library. Don't worry if a class fills up, we'll be sure to offer it again. And if you want a class on something we aren't currently offering, just ask! We'll do as best as we can to provide instruction on anything the public asks for.

Top 5 Ways MPL is Better Than the Academic Libraries I've Worked At

(Apologies to Ben Miller, and for ending the headline with a preposition.)

Missoula Public Library is the third library where I've worked.
The first was...

Love (awwww!) Library at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,

which has like 3 million items.

And the second was...

Davidson Library at the University of California-Santa Barbara,

which has probably 2.5 million items.

But I think I like working at the Missoula Public Library best, and here are the top reasons why:

5. It's 215 easy steps from my door to the library.
4. Never have to go to storage and find vol. XIII of The Royal East Prussian Journal of the Scientific Study of Platyhelminthes and Annelids which no doubt is covered in 87 years worth of dust.
3. Patrons are here because they want to be (for the most part), not because their professor gave them an assignment three months ago that's due tomorrow.
2. No working until 2am during Dead Week.
1. The emphasis is more on books for reading, rather than books for archiving.

A Mayoral Visit and Tour

Mayor Engen stopped by the Missoula Public Library Tuesday night in honor of National Library Week. We're always glad to have local notables stop by, and we were lucky enough to get the mayor. He read a proclamation and then it was off to tour the library.

20 or so members of the public got a chance to poke around the library. Our own library assistant Laura Cote guided the tour and was assisted by Karen and Kathy in the Kid's Department and Tech Services respectively. Tech Services was a new experience for most, someone even asked Kathy, "You really have a full time job down here? I didn't even know this part of the library existed." It does, and we have 6 full time employees there and 2 part time. It takes a lot of people to order, process, catalog, and get your materials upstairs. Plus they all take turns covering shifts at the check-out desk.

You can expect another library tour in the future, since this one was so well received. We just love to show the public what we're up to every day. And a special thanks to Mayor Engen for coming down and showing his support, it means a lot to us!

See Self Check Out For Yourself

Claire told you yesterday about the self check-out demo we had. But being geeky me, I had to take some pictures and let you all see for yourselves.This is the machine in action. You just place your card in on the machine, and it reads it. Then you just put your books in one by one and the machine checks them out to you and desensitizes in one swift blow. It even features a nifty video screen showing patrons where to place their cards. They told us we can film our own "tutorials" and use them instead of the stock footage. The bar code scanner is a real laser, unlike what we currently use. It is set to scan the barcode three times to verify your patron ID is what it is picking up, but don't worry, it only takes one or two seconds to do this. Then you just put your books up and let the laser do its thing. Once you're done, you can just walk out. It also features a touch screen. You can choose whether or not you want to a receipt by selecting yes or no on the screen.Of course I had to get a shot of the "guts" as well. It's pretty simple, just a Dell desktop running Windows XP pro. The really cool thing is that the system is RFID ready. We'll be making the switch to RFID labels for our AV collection when we implement the self check system so we can keep our items secure, but still let you check out by yourself quickly.

Self check has been a long time coming, look for it in the near future here at the Missoula Public Library

new toys

Today we got to play with self-check equipment. We've been putting off converting to self check-out for a couple of years now, but it's finally coming - and we're excited!

In a couple of months we'll get a demo unit for staff to work with and customize to our liking. (which really means customize to what we hope YOU will like). Be looking for these new machines towards the end of the year. Here's what it'll probably look like:

http://www.idrecall.com/checkeze.html

Don't like self check-out? Not to worry. We'll have an accounts desk where a staff member can check out your materials. Your choice.

and, as always, stay tuned!

Direct From the Kid's Department

on behalf of Karen and the rest of the Kid's Department:

On Saturday (April 14), Diann from the County Extension office, entertained children at the Missoula Public Library storytime with stories about construction and homes. The kids all sang along with Old Macdonald Had a Woodshop and each took home their very own carpenter pencil. I like how Diann brought the books in a toolbox and wore a hardhat. She also put up sawhorses that said “Reading Zone”.

We began National Library Week with a performance by Peggy and Rollie Meinholtz. They sang and danced and played music as well as reciting poetry by Vachel Lindsay and Peggy’s original poetry. Very entertaining! It’s also national Poetry Month. We heard several poems including her cowboy poem Coyote’s Tail Peggy also premiered her newest poem, Pate Foie gras. (French for minced fat liver)

The kid's department, as well as the rest of the library have many more programs lined up this week, since it is National Library Week. Stay tuned!

Bag it

These irresistible canvas bags are available at Missoula Public Library. How much for these beauties, you ask?

Ben, by the way, is not for sale. He's already taken. But he models bags like no other. A natural, don't you think?

The plain bag on the left is $10, the blue handled bag on the right is $12. Proceeds benefit the Friends of Missoula Public Library. The perfect birthday present. The perfect Mother's Day present. Or, just because.

Stop by the checkout desk to get yours today!

R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Kurt is up in heaven now.

Kurt Vonnegut died on April 11th of complications from a fall he suffered at his home. He was 84.

I've been a fan of Vonnegut since I laid eyes on one of his books. In junior high and high school, my best friend and I would trade his books back and forth like most boys our age were trading pornography. Later we would scour the internet, looking for interviews, biographies, or anything else Vonnegut-related we could find.

Since High School I've never let one of his books slip through my grasp, although my copy of Cat's Cradle is held together only with a hair tie, the result of my foolishly loaning it to a girl I was dating at the time. I own multiple copies of many of his books, and reread them all the time. His books have a great way of cleansing my literary palette between authors. Sometimes I feel like he was with me throughout my entire adolescence.

He seemed to understand the human condition far better than any author I've ever read. And in talking to the rest of the staff here at the library, many of them feel the same. The world has lost a truly fantastic mind.

So it goes.

VIP (In Honor of Sharon)

Since we're discussing important behind-the-scenes library people, let's talk about pages. In a library setting, pages are shelvers, not a knight-in-training, and not those thin white things between covers of a book that cause a pretty painful cut if they slide across your skin at just the right angle. Pages are the people you've probably seen lurking among the stacks(1), cart in tow, loaded down with books or movies, and rocking out to whatever's current on their listening device of choice. Pages are essential to keeping our library running smoothly. At the circulation desk(2), the library assistants(3) check in all the material you return; then they put the material on shelves behind the circulation desk, where they wait to be put in their proper location out in the stacks so you can find them. This is where the pages come in. They wander back into the circulation department, find a shelf that's overflowing with library material, and load it onto a cart. Then they put the cart in order based on the call numbers(4) of the material, haul it out into the stacks, and put it back in its proper location.

Sometimes, when no pages are scheduled to work on the weekend, you should take a look in the circ office and see what happens when there's no one around to put away the material you return--there can be piles and piles of books on the floor because there's no one around to put them away. Then you can't find any of the material you're looking for because it's all piled up in the circ office! Then you ask for it and the library assistants dig around through the piles and hopefully find what it is you're looking for. If they can't, they'll probably ask you if you would like to place the item on hold, but placing holds is for another blog post. Maybe next time.... But for now, we sure love our pages! I bet they'd appreciate a "Thank you!" next time you see one lurking (I use "lurking" in the most affectionate way) in the stacks....

(1) Stacks--Library-speak for bookshelves.
(2)Circulation Desk--Check-out Desk; "circ" for short
(3)Library Assistants--Check-out Desk employees; almost every employee in the library works at the check-out desk at least once during their work week.
(4)Call Numbers--at MPL, we use the Dewey Decimal System, which was created by Melvil Dewey in 1876. These are the numbers or letters written on the spine of library material that we use to organize all the material in the library.

Found-a-polooza

It has been a busy week so far in the found items department...

VVV - very valuable volunteers

Tuesdays are hopping with volunteers at the library. At 9am our volunteer book menders ring the doorbell, anxious to spend their morning caring for your favorite books that we're not ready to give up on just yet.

Before long another faithful volunteer appears to cover soft back books. It's a tedious and tricky job and we're grateful to have a willing helper.

Moving upstairs, I see that our "paperback ladies" have arrived. For decades, these ladies (and a couple of husbands in tow) have taken care of shelving the adult paperback books. There's a different crew for each day of the week - that's one smooth, flawless operation!

Speaking of teamwork, the Friends of the Library has a small team of dedicated folks who sort through our book donations and organize them for giveaway (downstairs) or for our upstairs sale shelves. Before noon today I notice one of our regular booksale volunteers busily sorting through the backlog of gifts. In the last two months we have received over 100 boxes of donations.

What would we do without these amazing volunteers?! And it's not even noon yet. So much work in so little time - with a paycheck that includes appreciation from staff and the knowledge that library users like you receive better service because of their efforts.

Want more information about our volunteer program? Check out the following:

http://www.missoulapubliclibrary.org/about/volunteers.htm

Here's wishing I had the perfect picture...

C

Quarter Founder

Here is a schedule found in a returned book late last week. Looks like someone is studying the Aztecs.

The Behind The Scene Team

Ever wonder who gets your books ready to go before they get upstairs? Our tech services team works behind the scenes everyday to get you all of your materials. From ordering them, to cataloging them, to finding your interlibrary loan the folks in tech services do it all. Here are Mary and Myra, getting work done at the crack of dawn...on a Saturday!

Interesting Folks in the Library

One of the many things I enjoy about working in the library are the interesting folks I see. This morning I had a father-son duo wandering around chatting away in French. As we get further into the summer we will have people from all over the world stopping in at the library to check their email, look for good local restaurants or other local happenings, or to relax and read the paper or a current magazine. Even if you only speak English, feel free to do the same.

What's new in nonfiction?

Child of the jungle: the true story of a girl caught between two worlds by Sabine Keugler
Call # B KUEGLER

One of the newest additions to the nonfiction collection is Sabine Kuegler’s memoir about growing up among the Fayu tribe in the jungles of West Papua. As the daughter of German linguist parents, Sabine grew up with a very limited knowledge of western culture. She came of age with the Fayu children and spent her time learning to take pleasure in the jungle’s delights and avoid its dangers. At the age of 17, Sabine is sent to a boarding school in Switzerland and the world as she knows it crumbles around her. Sabine’s memoir is about the clash of cultures, finding ones self and learning to survive in a strange world.

Want to read more about New Guinea? Try one of these titles.

Island in the clouds: travels in the highlands of New Guinea by Isabella Tree
Call # 919.5304 TREE

In this Lonely Planet Journeys publication, Isabella Tree tells the story of her journey through the remote and dangerous regions of Papua New Guinea and Iran Jaya accompanied by a man native to Papua New Guinea.

Four corners: one woman’s soloj into the heart of Papua New Guinea by Kira Salak
Call # 910.4 SALAK

Salak traveled to Papua New Guinea on a quest to become the first European woman to travel solo through the remote areas of New Guinea by retracing the steps of Ivan Champion, a British explorer who crossed the island in 1927.

Throwim way leg : tree-kangaroos, possums, and penis gourds--on the track of unknown mammals in wildest New Guinea by Tim F. Flannery
Call # 919.5 FLANNERY

Mammologist Tim Flannery traveled to New Guinea in search of new and unclassified animal species. This is his story of his travels across the island, the animals he found there and his interactions with the native peoples.

Guns, germs, and steel: the fates of human societies by Jared M Diamond.
Call # 304.4 DIAMOND

Evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond’s work on the ecology and evolution of the birds of New Guinea helped lead to his groundbreaking work about the factors that have shaped the world’s populations and led some societies to be the conquerors and others to be conquered. While this book isn't exactly about New Guinea, it does help to explain why Sabine Kuegler's family were the missionary linguists studying the diminishing Fayu culture and not the other way around.

Look What I Found!

Every day here at the library we see all sorts of things coming back with books. Today we have some psychedelic artwork by Tim and Tracy. Someday, these will be worth millions.

Sometimes you just get lucky.
I was told earlier that my continued library employment hinged upon my posting a blog tonight. After a fretful supper hour, I still was miles away from having anything coherent or interesting to say.
Then, an hour into what I was certain would be my last shift, a teenaged kid clutching a page from the lab printer came up and handed me this:



Don't worry--if you're in the computer lab and are short a lousy dime for your print, I'll be glad to cover it for you. Especially if you just saved my job.

--mjg.

Birds of a feather, or something like that...

Every semester students from the University of Montana's art class for education majors bring in their creations to share with our patrons. This semester, the theme was birds. As you can see, even though all the pieces are about birds, each piece is quite unique. Many of the students are very proud of their art, so when the semester ends, they come back to the Library to take their art home. If you want to enjoy a really good free art show that isn't part of the First Friday circuit, you better get down here before the end of UM's semester the beginning of May. However, some of the students aren't so proud of their work, and leave their pieces here for generations-of-library-users-to-come to enjoy. So if you don't hurry, you'll still be able to enjoy the not-so-good pieces. ; )

getting the show on the road

It's 9am. Time to see what you've all been up to last night, returning booktruck loads of books and videos. This is half of the night's returns. It'll take us about 45 minutes to get these checked in, while other staff members pick up stray books ("clean-up"), pull expired holds (did you miss yours while on vacation? let us know beforehand next time and we'll help you suspend your hold while you're gone) and print out your hold pickup and overdue notices.

One brave soul is searching our shelves for anywhere from 150-200 hold items that Partner Library patrons have placed on hold in the last 24 hours. That's a 3 hour job in itself! Today Vaun was on the hot seat - good job, Vaun! But wait, if you're pulling holds, who is checking in the newspapers at the reference desk?!

We were a couple of minutes late opening the library this morning. If you're ever wondering why we're not there right at 10am (and we usually are....), just think of the scurrying around going on. We'll be RIGHT there!

enough already

I waited all day for the perfect timing to post my first Missoula Public Library blog. I took pictures, downloaded them, got distracted, thought about it some more, then decided I didn't like any of the pictures.

Now I'm at home, wishing I'd taken the Nike approach. Just do it.

Tomorrow - the rush to opening. Just what do we all do before 10am to get the library ready for action? Behind closed doors..

Sometimes we're done with time for a quick coffee, sometimes we're finishing up as you all walk in the door.

More to come!